Chapter 7. Design for Sharing: How to build features that enable word of mouth

 

“There is no delight in owning anything unshared.”

 
 --SENECA, ROMAN PHILOSOPHER

In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes a rare type of person he calls a “connector.” Connectors play a special role in society: they act like hubs of a network, spreading information from one node to another. They are the social conduit that keeps everyone up to date and informed.[1]

The main role of connectors is to spread ideas. They have wide social circles—much wider than the average person—and when they get excited about a new idea, they share it with everyone they come into contact with. That’s just the way they are. Connectors love to be the first to tell their friends ...

Get Designing for the Social Web now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.